Cirrus@Austlit

'‘I came to Sydney from Melbourne in 1978 and immediately fell in love with its history, the sandstone buildings, the gorgeous harbour, the bridge, the Opera House, its ad hoc streets and its denizens.’

'In Sydney, acclaimed playwright and author Louis Nowra – author of Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo – expands his gaze to explore the energy, beauty, vulgarity, dynamism and pulsating sense of self-importance of his adopted city. This big, bustling portrait of Sydney is told through profiles of people, high and low, with a cast of criminals and premiers, ordinary folk, entertainers, artists, thieves and visionaries.

'Along with its people, Nowra surveys the city’s architecture and its global identity. And as Sydney’s history unfolds throughout the twentieth century and beyond, Nowra revels in its neon lighting, music, skyscrapers and sense of optimism.' (Publication summary)

'Mrs Beatrice Dark, the wife of powerful cabinet minister, Joseph Dark, enters the office of a tabloid newspaper and shoots her husband’s enemy, the editor of the tabloid on the eve of World War Two.  

'A sensational murder trial occurs, with its unfolding secrets, lies and sex scandals, mesmerising the nation, with those who believe she should be acquitted and those who think she should hang. But what is the real reason she killed Steven Hood, the editor?' (Publication summary)

'In this funny, razor’s edge memoir, Nowra looks back at a fractured family: a beautiful and demanding mother, whose standards could and would never be met; a father in love with long-distance; a mad grandmother; a hideous head accident; and a childhood filled with strangeness and obsessions. A moving and wonderfully original evocation of an unconventional boyhood, of growing up believing that aliens might just walk among us, and of the realisation that to be normal is harder than you think.'

Source: Redline Productions.

'In this collection acclaimed author, playwright, screenwriter Louis Nowra shows his breathtaking range that takes us from Venice to Lord Howe Island, from the chaos of contemporary Moscow to Sydney high society, from Edwardian London to a mysterious island full of beauty and terror in Far North Queensland. In these highly imaginative stories and novellas, odd balls, society matrons, prime ministers, obsessives, drunks, the vengeful, the innocents and other vivid characters feature in stories that are disturbing, moving and comic. This extraordinary collection is a testament to Nowra’s unique and unsettling vision.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'World War I produced an astonishing collection of diaries, poems and novels written by soldiers. One of the reasons for this was that most of the them were not professional servicemen. They disobeyed their superiors by keeping diaries, and if they hadn’t written what they did we would have only the official accounts.'  (Introduction)

'Theatre is a difficult art form to write about. Because of its evanescence it’s especially challenging to describe a production for those who haven’t seen it. One can write about a text, but how can one give the flavour of the acting and direction?' (Introduction)

'In 1984, Detective Eric O’Malley investigated the bizarre deaths of a young couple, their bodies found naked by the side of a creek in Sydney’s northern suburbs. Shortly before their demise, O’Malley learned, the pair had attended a swingers’ party.

'The case was barely open before it was deemed an accident. But O’Malley knew it was murder. He just couldn’t prove it. Thirty-five years later, O’Malley is found dead in his flat in what looks like a drug overdose. But his son James knows something’s amiss. His dad was close to solving that case after all these years. And someone else knew it. To track down his father’s killer, James must find the men and women who were there on the fateful night when that young couple died.

'This was the night of ‘The Goodbye Party’ – and uncovering its secrets will lead James down a dark path, filled with horrific twists and turns. Inspired by Sydney’s real-life Bogle-Chandler case, playwright Louis Nowra  (writer of Australian classics Cosi, Radiance and The Golden Age) creates an enthralling multicast audio drama, featuring an exceptional cast including Ben Oxenbould (Deep Water, Wolf Creek), Steve Bisley (Water Rats, Mad Max), and Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road, Jack Irish). This series contains mature themes and listener discretion is advised.' (Publication summary)

'Spanning five decades from 1962 to 2017, The Lewis Trilogy follows Louis Nowra's occasional hero, sometime narrator and perennial misfit, Lewis, as he struggles to find and understand his place in the changing world around him. In Summer of the Aliens, Lewis is a young man on the cusp of adulthood, growing up in a Melbourne housing commission. Set against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, the play is a coming of age story about sex and family, alien invasions, and suburban tragedies played out behind closed doors. In Cosi, Lewis is fresh out of university and directing Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with the inmates of a mental institution. As anti Vietnam protests take place in the streets outside, Lewis finds himself stepping off the sidelines to become emotionally involved with his actors' lives. In This Much is True, Lewis is a writer 'between divorces' and temporarily adrift among the outsiders and dropouts of an inner city Sydney pub. Older, and possibly wiser, Lewis is once more drawn into a world of colourful characters, all of them searching for magic in the mundane. Lewis' constant search for connection plays out against the evolving hopes and battles of Australian society -' just like us, only more extraordinary.'  (Publication summary)

'We may be the most urbanised nation on earth, but for some strange reason we seem to think the bush still defines us. Whereas London­, Berlin or New York are celebrated by writers and urban explorers in the guise of flaneurs or psychogeographers such as Charles Baudelaire, or contemporaries such as Englishman Iain Sinclair, Australian authors — except crime writers — have no such tradition.' (Introduction)

'It was no wonder I was glad to be down in Woolloomooloo. The Old Fitzroy reminded me of how Kings Cross used to be.

'Told in his vivid and entertaining style, Louis Nowra writes Woolloomooloo's biography, drink in hand, from the vantage point of the Old Fitzroy Hotel, the cosy, eccentric and wonderful pub on Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo. It's a world of sex, sin, sly grog, sailors, razor gangs, larrikins, workers, artisans, murderers, fishermen, activists, drinkers, fashion designers, tradies, artists and the downright dangerous. It's also a story of courage, resilience, tolerance, compassion. And though the pub has a real theatre, it's the cast of real-life characters that are the stars of this show.

'Woolloomooloo's past wraps around its present.  Louis - often accompanied by Coco the Chihuahua and other two-legged locals, often walks the streets, uncovering history - some official, some never revealed. He stumbles across pockets of beauty and charm, and the derelict and abandoned. Unforgettable - and unspellable - Woolloomooloo in this book is a place as fascinating as its name.' (Publication summary)

'A debt collector, a drag queen, a rogue chemist and a manic depressive walk into a pub…

'THIS MUCH IS TRUE continues the story of Lewis from Summer of the Aliens and Cosi. Now he’s older, a writer and lives in an inner city suburb filled with public housing, the underclass and characters who could only exist in such a place.

'He attends the 150 year old hotel, The Rising Sun, where he mixes with a core of customers, including an ice chemist, a once famous drag queen, a violent debt collector, a con man, a manic depressive and a fixer.

'These stories are true.' (Production summary)

'Black parachutes fall from the sky: young soldiers - and a dog - on a rescue mission in a remote part of Afghanistan...But the mission ends in chaos, and Mark and Prince embark on a perilous journey through enemy territory. They depend on each other to survive...A dramatic and powerful story of war and the bond between a young soldier and a dog, from the acclaimed author of Into That Forest...' (Publication summary)

'Louis Nowra burrows beneath the sensationalist Underbelly ‘sex and sin’ narrative, revealing stories and a cast of characters – some household names others little-known - that not even a writer could conjure up.

'Kings Cross is a no-holds barred place, where backpackers, prostitutes, strippers, chefs, mad men, poets, beggars, booksellers, doctors, gangsters, sailors, musicians, drug traffickers, eccentrics, judges and artists live side by side. Part flaneur, part historian and part eyewitness, Louis Nowra is the best possible guide to a place both real, and a state of mind.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.